Diet

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How many of you parents have put your child on special diets to help the autism- and did it help! Thanks for any replies (trying to decide). Paul

If you are considering GFCF, honestly I think it's gonna be a waste of time & effort. My son has been making huge strides lately and he eats loads of bread and cheese.

I have tried the diets and they made no difference to either of my kids. The only thing that has altered anything with mine is behaviour modification programs.

I have had my daughter on Failsafe for 16 months. It has helped with behavior, hyperactivity, frustration tolerance, emotional volatility. She still has problems in these areas but the diet does seem to help.

Here is a link to a very good overview of the diet:
http://failsafediet.wordpress.com/about ... safe-diet/

"In particular it excludes:
1.Around fifty artificial additives including colours (such as a range of azo-dyes or coal-tar dyes like tartrazine (E102) and sunset yellow (E110)), flavours, preservatives and antioxidants (like sulphites (sulfites), nitrates, nitrites, benzoates (like BHA, BHT), sorbates, parabens, and others).
2.Salicylates (aspirin compounds) found in a wide range of fruits and vegetables as well as man-made NSAIDs and COX II inhibitors.
3.Free neurotransmitters and pseudo-neurotransmitters in foods, such as free glutamates (naturally and artificially occurring MSG), and biogenic amines (like histamine, serotonin, dopamine, phenylethylamine, tyramine and others) found in aged proteins and fermented foods like cheese, game, and hung beef and some plant foods, particularly tropical fruits.
4.Environmental chemicals and strong smells like perfumes, including the use of most commercial cosmetics, scented and coloured toiletries and especially mint and menthol products."

GFCF has helped my son tons! But obviously it doesn't help everyone. One real problem is that you have to 100% for at least 2-3 months to see the difference. My son noticed in 1 1/2 months but it took 3 for me to see it in him. And you could very well think you are 100% and yet there is wheat in your bullion cubes and sauces or you are eating out where there is no real control. It is worth all the trouble in my son's case.

We avoid soy with my son but that is it.

Gluten seems to be the most likely food sensitivity, so if you want to experiment you could try that one. Needing to be GFCF is less likely than simply being gluten sensitive. And then there are kids like my son that shouldn't eat soy.

Mostly trail and error, I guess, but none of it is a magic, one size fits all solution. Just, food sensitivities can be very real, and if your child has one and it is making him fell less than 100%, that will negatively affect behavior. Pretty obvious when you think about it.

Well, gluten is a sensitivity issue but the problem is a leaky gut and the damage that occures when gluten leaks is damage to the brain. Here is some science behind it. There are even better articles but I can't look for them now.

http://healthsciences.utah.edu/developm ... ecchi.html

Immune system dysfunction makes one prone to mental illness. What causes immune system dysfunction? Usually autoimmune diseases. And autoimmune diseases are caused by gut health being compromised. There have
been studies that prove that a healthy immune system starts with a healthy gut.
That's why you hear so much about probiotics and going gluten free. It helps
to heal the gut, calm the autoimmunity, and then mental health improves.

I can tell right away when my son has eaten gluten. Anything I say is like beating a dead horse.

I think there is no downside to trying these diets. I wish we had tried them when my son was young enough that we could control his diet. At this point, we need to wait until he agrees, which he doesn't. He lives on refined carbs and cheese.

I suspect that he would do well with gluten free, but he won't have any part of it.

I get more and more tempted to try GF on me, and maybe my daughter. We both clearly have something weird going on with food.

My AS son doesn't want to try it and given how well he is doing, that is his choice.

My main worry is GF combined with CF; I don't think it is usually necessary, and most parents supplant the CF with soy. I know more people in real life who can't eat soy than need to be CF. I think GFCF worked because it highlighted how many people have a GF issue, and not because the combination is that prevalent.

I've not researched, I've just followed the dozens of personal stories I've seen posted. I feel like the science is still evolving, but there is something going on here. Not the same exact thing for everyone, however.

There was a recent article about how drugs may have permanently altered the natural balance of microbes we are supposed to have in our stomachs. There is definitely something to the idea there might be gut issues making things worse for a child. It doesn't make them autistic v non, but it does have negative effects that affect how your child functions.

Which only shows that your son doesn't have sensitivities to wheat or dairy.

It doesn't mean he doesn't have sensitivities to something else -- there are many many other things to be reactive to aside from those two little categories.

And then again, he may have not have sensitivities to anything, and his condition has a completely different cause.

You can no more predict that someone else's kid will have no effect any more than someone else would be right in claiming that yours would before you actually looked to see if it did or not.

I am afraid I don't have much to say about diets, but I have been compiling a list of things for future reference, you might find some useful information in some of these posts:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt160523.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt93083.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt160525.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt172834.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt146058.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt99623.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt121929.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt151129.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt174235.html

I just posted a thread about some results I had with my son and his allergy and stool testing. I will know more after our appt. later today. My son has always had off sensory days and on sensory days, with no real rhyme or reason to them that I have been able to tell. He is also a very good sleeper, but always an early riser, and will still look tired some days, which are the days he is more on edge too. I have never been able to find the trigger, other than it must be food.

I have a friend who just went gluten free on her Kindy daughter. The daughter isn't on the spectrum, but has had what she though was allergy problems and digestive isues. After a month, her daughter started having a bowel movement every day and she said her daughter's dark circles under her eyes went away. Her daughter's sniffles, that she thought were air allergies and was always giving her Claritin for, left too. Last week, when her husband was out of the country, she got a little lazy and allowed a couple of gluten snacks. She said she noticed her daughter's behaviour being more disagreeable and the dark circles had returned. Once she figured it out, she threw the snacks back out.

We are pulling gluten out of my son's diet starting today. He is ready to try this as his stomach is giving him so many problems right now. He knows something needs to be done.

How difficult is the gluten free diet and is it difficult to maintain? Paul

One mom said her child when berserk in school and had diarrhea for 3 days following his eating of a corner of a saltine cracker- I find this a little difficult to believe!!

my daughter and I have been on The GAP diet.. I wish I could tell you more about it then we don't eat grains or starch, alot of fruits and veggies. I really think this is helping her anxiety and ocd symptoms, and it has only been two weeks!! ! I figure if it couldn't hurt her, then why not try it? Just look up the GAP diet online, and it will tell you more about it then I can. We also put her on probiotics, I heard the liquid kind is best... Well I hope this helps a little:) good Luck.

My sister in law has celiac disease and so has competely banned gluten from her diet. There are a lot of substitues for gluten containing products like Paul Newman brand "oreo" cookies (gluten free though oddly the package says not wheat free, someday maybe I'll understand that), pizza dough made with non-gluten containing flour, pancake mix... The difficulty may be down to where you live and if you have access to and can afford to shop at a good natural food store. My SIL mentioned above lives in Denver so has access to a wide variety of different markets and specialty stores.

Whenever you're trying to cut anything out, you have to do A LOT of label reading especially at first but once you find products you know you can trust or replace store bought products with things you make yourself, then it becomes easier. The things you are trying to avoid often lurk in unexpected places. We were just trying to eliminate red dye and it would turn up in unexpected places, like a particular brand of granola bar that did not at all appear red?! Once I tuned into it, I could spot any product that likely contained food dyes from a mile.